Day 43

72 miles with three rabid dog attacks. 

We didn’t leave dear Jean-Marie’s house until late this morning.This was totally our fault and due to the fact that we so enjoyed her company we didn’t want to leave. It was therefore somewhat reluctantly that we climbed onto the bikes and set off at 0900hrs. 

We were heading to Benedict and making good progress when we passed a white truck in a field. Just as we were level with the truck two white dogs came hurtling out and chased us. They were easily catching up with us and we had no desire to sustain bites so we both deployed countermeasures in the form of pepper spray. This did the trick and we carried on leaving at least one of the dogs with watery eyes. I’m not happy about having to do this but I have heard so many nasty stories about dogs biting cyclists on the Trans-Am route and if one of us ends up bitten with an infected, cellulitic leg, the ride would be over – this isn’t happening. We had two further incidents in the day which is very odd as it’s hardly been a problem today. 

We arrived in Benedict and went to the shop run by Joe who you see above. A very interesting ex-sailor. We were once again slow leaving his shop as he was such an fascinating man. 

Due to our tardiness we didn’t arrive at the church near Walnut till 2030hrs. We ate rapidly before settling down to blog and then sleep. 

We have decided to cycle to Pittsburgh (Kansas) tomorrow and then have a day off. It’s been 6 days and we are both tired.